🎗️Childhood, Personality, and Anxiety: What Mark Can Childhood Maltreatment Leave on Adult Personality?
What if the roots of adult anxiety go back much further than when the symptoms actually appear? A study involving adults in psychotherapy found a strong link between childhood emotional maltreatment, difficulties in personality functioning, and anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that, particularly in cases of emotional neglect, understanding how a person has shaped their relationship with themselves can be crucial to understanding their suffering in adulthood.
Difficult childhood experiences can continue to influence a person's life long after they occurred. Emotional abuse, neglect, and a lack of care in childhood may be linked to higher levels of anxiety in adulthood. Yet, this raises an important question: how can an experience from childhood be connected to symptoms that emerge decades later?
A new study investigated this relationship and identified a possible piece of the puzzle: the way a person comes to perceive themselves and relate to others.
To explore this issue, researchers followed 335 adults who were beginning individual psychotherapy. Participants completed questionnaires regarding childhood maltreatment, their emotional and relational functioning, and their anxiety symptoms.
Of the participants, 64.2% reported having experienced at least one form of childhood maltreatment. This allowed researchers to investigate not only whether these experiences were linked to anxiety but also whether there was a mechanism that might explain this connection.
One of the most important parts of the study was assessing what is known as personality functioning. Here, personality does not simply mean being shy, extroverted, easygoing, or impulsive. The researchers were interested in something deeper: how a person understands who they are, manages their emotions, sets goals, and builds relationships.
They analyzed two major areas. The first was self-functioning, that is, the ability to maintain a relatively stable sense of self, understand one’s emotions, and recognize one’s own desires and goals. The second was interpersonal functioning, which relates to the ability to understand others, form bonds, and maintain relationships.
Next, the researchers conducted a statistical analysis to try to understand the pathway between maltreatment and anxiety. Imagine, in simplified terms, three points connected by a road: an experience of childhood maltreatment, difficulties in personality functioning, and, later, symptoms of anxiety.
The question was whether difficulties in personality functioning might represent part of this pathway. To verify the consistency of the results, the researchers also employed a statistical technique known as bootstrapping, which allows the analysis to be repeated numerous times using different data combinations to observe whether the results remain stable.
When the researchers examined the different types of maltreatment separately, a significant finding emerged. Emotional abuse and emotional neglect were the only types that showed a significant relationship with anxiety symptoms. In the case of emotional abuse, the link to anxiety persisted even when personality functioning difficulties were taken into account.
However, the situation differed for emotional neglect: the observed relationship with anxiety was statistically explained by difficulties in personality functioning.
In other words, among the individuals studied, a lack of emotional care during childhood appears to be linked to adult anxiety primarily through deeper-seated difficulties regarding how these individuals perceive themselves and function within relationships.
There was also a significant distinction between these two areas. Difficulties related to the functioning of the self played a more substantial role than difficulties in relationships. Across the various types of maltreatment analyzed, difficulties in personality functioning accounted for approximately 73% of the observed association between childhood maltreatment and anxiety symptoms.
However, it is important to interpret this figure with caution: it does not mean that 73% of anxiety is caused by mistreatment, nor that personality is solely responsible. The study was conducted at a single point in time and relied on self-reported questionnaires; therefore, it cannot prove a direct causal link between the experiences.
What the study suggests is that the picture may be more complex than simply "childhood mistreatment leads to anxiety." Experiences of neglect and emotional abuse may be linked to difficulties in forming a sense of self, recognizing one's own emotions, and establishing bonds; these difficulties, in turn, may be associated with the anxiety symptoms observed in adulthood.
For the authors, this underscores the importance of individualized, trauma-informed psychotherapies, approaches that view anxiety not merely as an isolated symptom, but also consider the underlying emotional and relational difficulties. Above all, the results highlight the importance of preventing childhood mistreatment, given that its consequences can extend far beyond the time the abuse occurred.
READ MORE:
Childhood Maltreatment and Anxiety in Adulthood: Disentangling the Role of Personality Functioning
Vaccarezza S, Opazo S, Mundt AP, Cortázar A, and Errazuriz PÂ
Psychological Reports, 2026.Â
Abstract:Â
Childhood maltreatment (CM), particularly emotional neglect and abuse, has been associated with an increased risk of anxiety and less favorable psychotherapy outcomes in adulthood. Impairments in personality functioning are a significant mechanism mediating this relation. This naturalistic cross-sectional study examined the mediating role of personality functioning in the relation between CM and anxiety symptoms in a clinical adult sample. A total of 335 adult patients starting individual psychotherapy completed intake self-report questionnaires about CM experiences, personality functioning, and anxiety symptoms. We assessed the two dimensions of personality functioning described in Section III of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), specifically, self-functioning and interpersonal functioning. Bootstrapped mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate the mediating role of personality functioning in the association between each CM type and anxiety symptoms. 64.2% of the sample reported at least one type of CM. Personality functioning explained 73% of the total effect of CM on anxiety symptoms. Only emotional abuse and emotional neglect showed significant total effects. Emotional abuse retained a direct effect, while emotional neglect was fully mediated by personality functioning. Both personality functioning dimensions were significant mediators, yet self-functioning had a larger impact. Psychotherapeutic interventions targeting impairments in personality functioning are essential for treating anxiety symptoms in adults with CM. Findings emphasize the importance of trauma-informed, personalized interventions, and CM prevention strategies.
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